Child and Youth Advocate releases systemic review concerning nine young people

September 7, 2021

Child and Youth Advocate releases a systemic review concerning nine young people

Thorough assessment, information-sharing, and collaboration among service providers are key areas of recommendation

“There is legislation in place such as the Children First Act which works to promote the well-being,
safety and security of children and families by allowing for information-sharing and collaboration
between service providers,” said Del Graff, Provincial Child and Youth Advocate. “Promotion of this
legislation is important to improve outcomes for children and families and should be a consistent focus
for Alberta, regardless of changing priorities.”

The systemic review also includes two new recommendations:

• Child serving ministries review and adjust their quality assurance processes to include both
  qualitative and quantitative measures that regularly evaluate service delivery within their
  systems.
• Child serving ministries should also collaborate and coordinate with Service Alberta to regularly communicate where to access reference and training materials to those responsible for providing services under the Children First Act. Furthermore, these ministries should offer service providers opportunities for ongoing, interactive, cross-systems training on the act.

Through the interviews regarding each young person in this review, along with feedback received in
town hall meetings, we learned that frontline service delivery providers do not appear to be aware of
the resources available to them to guide information sharing and collaboration.

Since 2015, the OCYA has made 27 recommendations to Child Intervention Services to build capacity
in their workforce so the needs of young people and their families are adequately assessed and
supported. Over the same period, we have made nine recommendations to address gaps in
information-sharing and collaboration among service providers. Additionally, 17 requests for internal
reviews were made to address gaps in service delivery related to these concerns.

Actions have been taken to address these recommendations through policy and procedure changes,
and implementation of practice tools and models, yet these challenges continue.

Systemic and Mandatory reporting increases accountability and transparency for government systems,
benefitting both young people and their families involved with child intervention. The reporting also
builds public confidence through identifying gaps, barriers and opportunities in systems that serve
Albertans.

A copy of the report is available here: ocya.alberta.ca/adult/publications/investigative-review/.
The Office of the Child and Youth Advocate is an independent office of the Legislature of Alberta. We
stand up for young people receiving designated government services.

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Media inquiries:
Tim Chander
Communications Manager
Office of the Child and Youth Advocate of Alberta
C: 780-499-3601; tim.chander@ocya.alberta.ca